Sean Hayes Blames NBC for Disappointing Rates- Page 2

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 3:24pm

I'm the odd man out but I like the show. I honestly have no idea how any former fans of the horribly written Will & Grace can compare this new show unfavorably to that one. It's silly, but not insulting to the intelligence like Will & Grace. And when I think about the laughs I get out of the show as compared to the feeling of having been slimed by the actively insulting "The New Normal" last year, it's a regular tonic.

[The8re phan]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 3:29pm

I've only caught the show twice -- both times by accident. Thou Sean is likable, and Linda Lavin is FIERCE, I found the writing a bit lacking and haven't made it a point to seek it out

Posted: 10/24/13 at 3:40pm

I've watched a few episodes and I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did, what with Linda lavin and Megan Hilty being involved. Overall I thought it was extremely sub-par, certainly not the funniest show around by any means. These days the multi-camera format only seems to work on CBS, likely because of its previously mentioned vast viewership.

Updated On: 10/24/13 at 03:40 PM

[rentfn]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 3:45pm

I'm still mad that NBC cut Go On, wasn't perfect but was funny each week. So yeah...Go Sean!!! Screw NBC

[bobs3]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 4:49pm

They need to fire and replace the entire writing staff and go to a single camera format. It is so obvious to one's ear that they are enhancing the live audience laughter with canned laughter. Updated On: 10/24/13 at 04:49 PM

[Wicked Fanatic]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 5:01pm

They need to fire and replace the entire writing staff and go to a single camera format. It is so obvious to ones ear that they are enhancing the live audience laughter with canned laughter.

Agree with both of these comments especially since I was there for the 1st taping on August 9th which turned out to be the stupid 2nd episode about the bras. Thanks to the multi-cameras each scene was shot at least four times and made for a very long taping experience of 5 1/2 hours. They definitely had to enhance the live audience laughter with canned since it's a little hard to laugh at a scene four times let alone once which I didn't do very much at all. This show is doomed. I'm surprised it hasn't been canceled yet but it will be.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 7:01pm

The show is not awful its just OK, but how anyone can think its better that Will and Grace is beyond me. He is right though, NBC is a dying network, when here hit shows can barely get above a 2.0 in the demo you know something is very very wrong.

[Replacement Cast]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 7:16pm

It is not a good show. It is, however, better than the Michael J. Fox show -- NBC's worst drama is funnier than MJF's show. Linda Lavin slays in this show. I think it's time she gets her own show again. They should spin off her character from Sean's show and they might have a hit. But, if it's on NBC, no one will watch it.

[Tsao5]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 7:51pm

I also saw an audience taping (show 7-yet to air), and it was strange in that, the writing team were really enjoying their work and patting themselves on the back, but many of us left thinking, the show will never do well. With various takes they would try to punch up the jokes (actually it was the actors coming up with better jokes particularly the guy who plays the boss, who actually was great). Sean seemed a bit nervous, and it seemed SO SO forced, and not funny.....the only thing LESS funny was the audience comedian. Just awful and kinda an a-hole. But Linda Lavin was a joy to see, and how she would do her lines different every take.

[Adam Chris]

Posted: 10/24/13 at 8:16pm

I guess I'm one of the only posters who enjoys the show. I think in the 1st episode Hayes had too much make up and the jokes were clunky, the 2nd episode was better. And last night's was fun. But I hated the 1st season of Will and Grace because the characters seemed too cardboard, but they eventually found their stride. I'm hoping Sean Saves the World finds its own as well.

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 9:46am

Megn was awesome in "Smash" should have won the Emmy.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 10:14am

Ways in which Sean Saves the World is better than Will & Grace:

* It is relatively easy to understand that these people actually have relationships with each other
* There is no Cousin Debbie struggling so hard not to laugh at her own lines
* None of the characters are 95% unlikable 100% of the time
* Sean Hayes actually is adept at physical comedy and intricate prop work, closer to Lucille Ball in that regard than Cousin Debbie ever was, even though NBC (and obviously she, herself) really tried to make it happen that she was the new Lucille Ball
* There is no character whose only schtick is to be casually racist

Ways in which it is not:

* The laugh track

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 10:42am

He's just trying to promote the show. It's torturous to carry an entire series on your shoulders. Hundreds of people's livelihoods are dependent on "your" show succeeding.

It's just like the leads in Broadway shows that are failing doing a curtain speech asking the audience to tell their friends to come.

Sean Hayes isn't being deluded, he's just trying to save work for himself a bunch of other people.

[followspot]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 10:58am

I don't give two hoots about Sean Hayes or his show, but I'm failing to see anywhere in the article being discussed where he "blames NBC for disappointing ratings." He rationally discusses NBC's overall low viewership, the struggle of attracting viewers away from other networks' long-running hit shows, and quite naturally defends his show against the negative consensus among TV critics. Why the sensationalized, completely inaccurate Broadway.com headline and comments? Did I miss a memo where we're all supposed to hate Sean Hayes for some reason?


Sean Hayes

Updated On: 10/25/13 at 10:58 AM

[Owen22]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 11:22am

If Sean thinks his show is the funniest on TV he's never seen "The New Girl".

[Playbilly]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 11:37am

He's never seen a new girl.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 11:44am

His character has seen a nude girl.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 11:52am

Watched two episodes. I think there is a built in problem. What made Sean so great on Will and Grace was he was outrageous comic relief. Now he is the center of the series: a straight man so to speak. That means people have to be funny all around him and they are not. He is not so
comfortable being a straight man and then the writers panic and give him something outrageous to do (which always seems contrived and not real) such as obsessing over his daughter when he on a date and
throwing all of the Curry Puffs on the floor. Just not funny cause it's so contrived. Imagine the fifties Jerry Lewis being the center of the his own sitcom... he really needed Dean Martin to bounce off. It just won't work. It;s not NBC's fault; It's not Sean;s fault. It's a built in problem that the writers or lead producer are not solving.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 1:03pm

[suestorm]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 1:19pm

good point GoldenBoys. its as if Kramer was the lead of Seinfeld. he is good in small doses. but too much as the lead.

How I Met Your Mother, 2 broke girls, big bang. Mom, Modern Family, are all way funnier. last years Chelsea Handler and Whitney were even funnier

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 1:35pm

See, I just keep seeing what could have been. Imagine one sitcom that combined the premises of both Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show:

Sean must figure out how to parent his 14-year-old daughter, who just moved in, while navigating a temperamental new boss at work. Meanwhile, his partner, Michael, who once had to give up his career as a news anchor for a New York television station after being diagnosed with Parkinson's to focus on his health and his family, is now struggling between family and career as he decides to get back to work five years later.

That's a reality that is going to be increasingly common in the years to come, and you can mine it for no small amount of comedy, drama, and all the other things that make up a memorable series. They said people weren't ready for Will and Grace, and look how long that lasted. My far more daring idea, in this age of Modern Family, to name one example, could only work, with the right writers and creative team.

I bet you someone like Susan Harris would have been the first to approach the runners and say, "These shows aren't going to work on their own. Fox has been away too long, and Hayes is not leading man material. Two bad concepts with two border line A-list actors = ratings disaster. Bring these forces together."

We need someone like that in this industry again.

Updated On: 10/25/13 at 01:35 PM

Posted: 10/25/13 at 1:55pm

"To me, (the show) is working," Hayes shared with the site. "It's just the struggle of the elephant in the room which is ,'How do you get viewers to NBC?' NBC programs great shows, it just doesn't have the eyeballs CBS does.

Why isn't his show working? It's because it's on NBC and no one watches NBC. His show is the funniest on TV. I don't know how you can spin that anyway OTHER than "It's NBC's fault."

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 2:39pm

followspot, SSTW is not up against The Big Bang Theory on CBS, but The Crazy Ones. It's biggest competition is not on CBS actually, but on ABC with Grey's Anatomy.

NBC scheduled Welcome to the Family, which has already been cancelled, as the original lead-in to SSTW, and that certainly didn't help anyone out.

Even with a rerun of The Voice as a lead-in last night SSTW could only muster a 1.1 ratings share. The damage has been done and it will be lucky to play out its 13 episodes.

Posted: 10/25/13 at 3:20pm

The Voice is NBC's top rated series.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/25/13 at 8:50pm

If he thinks this is the funniest show on TV, he hasn't seen Louie!

...You all watch awful comedies.